Starting Salaries for Nurses

The economy has made many of us more conscious of what salaries our degrees will earn us, and made us more inclined to research into the salary and career requirements. Nursing salaries vary according to the type of nursing you want to go into, which area of the country you want to practice, and especially how much experience you have had (as most salaries do). While starting salaries cannot base too much on experience, they look at your background degree, and the higher degree you have will lead to a higher salary.

Location
Typical for the United States, most New England states have higher nurses salaries, although this is largely due to the cost of living in the area. The average salary for New York nurses is $70,000, with Boston and Philadelphia not too far behind. It is clear that the further South and West you want to travel, the lower your salary and cost of living will become, as Houston and Atlanta have the two lower salaries both around $60,000. While this is not indicative of every community, it demonstrates more of the average range of salaries in the area.

Experience
The levels of experience typically range from less than one year to over twenty years. However, this gives many students an indicator of what they can expect from a starting salary up to several years in the industry. Once again, these salaries depend on location, but the national average of a starting salary for a Bachelor’s in Science, Nursing, is $50,000. After your first year, this can jump to $56,000 and eventually reach close to $70,000 after twenty years. However, this is different for each type of nursing area. Nursing managers and nursing directors earn up to $70,000 initially due to their heightened level of experience in the field. RNs additionally earn around $6,000 more than BSNs at every level of experience, leading to higher salary in the long run.

Nursing is one field that is in constant demand for new workers and will continue to attract new students to its many programs around the country. The excellent starting salaries are a good driving force for many potential students in the health care industry and there is always a high demand in many different communities. Depending on what level of degree you want to earn (RN, BSN, CAN, PCA), you can earn a variety of different levels of salaries and experience an array of different life lessons at the same time.